Amazon Kindle Fire 2 evidence grows. Sort of

It’s new product mania over the next couple of weeks. We’ve got Nokia and Motorola hosting stuff on September 5, followed by the iPhone 5 launch (probably) on September 12.

Amazon, too, has an event scheduled. On September 6, Team Bezos is tipped to lift the lid on the Amazon Kindle Fire 2.

As I was saying last week, Amazon isn’t giving anything away. Its invite merely reads: “Please join us for an Amazon Press Conference.” Er, okay.

Since the launch of the original Amazon Kindle Fire last September, the rumour mill has been touting the idea of a 10in variation, a refreshed 7in Kindle Fire, and even an Amazon smartphone.

The Verge has just been sent a bunch of pictures of what appears to be the, uhm, middle one; the refreshed 7in Amazon Kindle Fire, or “Kindle Fire 2” if you like.

The pics appear to show an Amazon Kindle Fire 2 with a front-facing camera and mic for video calling. Hey, gotta keep up with the Asus Nexus 7.

However, one source suggests: “That picture you guys posted is not the new Kindle Fire. I know because I have held the new Kindle Fire in my hand and played with it for extensive periods of time... the bezel on the new Kindle Fire is wider. It has sloping sides like the old Motorola Xoom, so it sits nicely in the hand."

Ah well, only six days to go before we meet whatever new devices Amazon has planned. Oh, it’s also tipped to unveil a backlit Kindle e-reader. Set phasers for next Thursday.

I have actually no idea why anyone would buy a Kindle Fire. If eBooks are your priority, buy an eInk device. If you want an Android gizmo that can also hurt your eyes reading books on a backlit screen, buy any tab and install the Kindle/Kobo/StanzaEtcEtc app... You get the whole appstore, you get a proper browser etc etc....